CCSS ELA Standard: 2.W.3

Earth’s Layers: Who Contributes The Most?

Earth’s layers will disagree about which one contributes the most to the planet’s success.

An Under-Appreciated Planet

Students write from the point of view of the most under-appreciated planet.

Power and Traditions

We compare the power of traditions shared by millions with smaller traditions shared by perhaps just one family.

Halloween Worksheets

Crosswords, image analysis, and writing prompts for Halloween!

Writing Compound Sentences

Students work with subjects, predicates, and conjunctions to write compound sentences.

Writing Haiku in Primary

Your youngest students will learn to write Japanese Haiku poetry.

Founding The Colonies

13 colonies activities including a word search and task cards packed with facts. Plus, students will create their own colony with a name, story, and map!

Characters’ Faults Can Also Be Strengths

Strength and weakness are often two sides of the same coin. Students will explore how a character’s flaw can be a benefit.

Halloween Problems and Solutions

When we try to solve a problem, sometimes we end up creating new problems. Which lead to new solutions. Which lead to new problems.

St. Patrick and Other Legends

How would real people feel about the legends that have been created about them?

Change A Story’s Genre

What if we rewrote a story’s climax into a totally different genre?

Order, Chaos, and the Holiday Season

Let’s write a holiday song about order and chaos!

Holiday Emoji Story ⛷️

Students will create a story about ⛷️🌨️🌲🐻🤝

Holiday Emoji Story 🍪

Students will create a story about 🍪🥛🔍🐾🦌

Holiday Emoji Story ☃️

Students will create a story about ☃️👑🏔️🔭✨

Holiday Emoji Story 🎅

Students will create a story about 🎅🛷🌀🚀🌍

Holiday Emoji Story 🚚

Students will create a story about 🚚🎁🤔🐶🫣

Halloween Emoji Story 🎃

Students will create a story about 🎃🕯️📖💥👻.

Halloween Emoji Story 🌕

Students will create a story about 🌕🌲👣😱💨.

Halloween Emoji Story 🕷️

Students will create a story about 🕷️🕸️📩🔑🚪.

Emoji Stories 🦁

Students will create a story about 🦁👑🐗🎶🌄

Emoji Stories 🐌

Students will create a story about 🐌📬✈️🏛️ 📜

Emoji Stories 🚚

Students will create a story about 🚚🤖📻🛸🌌

Emoji Stories 🏟️

Students will create a story about 🏟️🏹🍞🐦🔥

Emoji Stories 🕰️

Students will create a story about 🕰️🎩🐀💎🕺

Emoji Stories 👁️

Students will create a story about 👁️🔮🌩️🚷🌲

Emoji Stories 🚗

Students will write a story about 🚗🗺️🌋🐉🌉

Emoji Stories 🤖

Students will create a story about 🤖💃🎵🕺🐔.

Emoji Stories 🐻

Students will create a story about 🐻🎩🎙️🐰🤣.

Emoji Stories 🏰

Students will create a story about 🏰📚🔍🔐🚪.

Emoji Stories 🛥️

Students will write a story about 🛥️🏊🌊🐙🤝 .

Mother’s Day Cards

Let’s write the cleverest Mother’s Day cards you’ve ever seen!

A Halloween Costume Gone Wrong

Let’s go roller skating in a Halloween costume! What could possibly go wrong?

Looking Closely at Holiday Photos

Let’s write from multiple perspectives using an old timey holiday photo!

Holiday Writing: Packing Crates

Students will look closely at this old image and write a short, structured poem.

Thanksgiving Photo Writing

Starting with an old-timey photo, students will write from a particular item’s point of view.

Discussing An Important Decision from History

How would people with two different perspectives discuss a decision from history?

Back to School: Rewriting The Beatles’ “Help!”

Can your students come up with a one-syllable word to sum up their time away from school? And then rewrite The Beatles’ song Help!?

Writing in Pilish

Pi can go beyond circles! What if you wrote using the digits of pi as your guide?

Writing About Art: The Scream

Your students will turn the iconic painting The Scream into a vivid, sensory poem.

The Pros and Cons of Producers and Consumers

Sure, students might know the difference between a producer and a consumer… but have they considered how they feel about each other? What, in a producer’s opinion, are the pros and cons of a consumer?

Think Like A Philosopher

What would Socrates have thought if he watched Frozen?

Writing A Thanksgiving Letter

What if an inanimate object could express thanks for a special person in your life? What would it write?

Remixing A Holiday Poem

Let’s take a classic Christmas poem and remix it to work with another holiday!

Characters Dressed as Other Characters for Halloween

What if one character dressed up as another for Halloween? Would the Cat in the Hat pick Captain Jack Sparrow, because they’re both chaotic yet good-natured people? Would Elsa dress up as The Ice King since they are both lonely?

SCAMPER: Scaffolding Creativity

Asking students to “think creatively” won’t get you far. They won’t know how to start, they’ll get stuck with simple ideas, or they’ll just go completely wild. SCAMPER is a tool for scaffolding the process of creativity.

The Personalities of Rocks

What would an igneous rock be like? Would it get along with a sedimentary rock? Could they handle the hot personality of a metamorphic rock?

Student Introductions With Depth and Frames

Want to introduce the tools of Depth and Complexity and learn more about your students and introduce the Frame graphic organizer? Have I got the activity for you!

More Specific than “Smart”

When students are told that they’re “smart”, what does this word actually mean to them? (Psst. It isn’t what we intended.)

Building Creative Analogies

We’ll take two seemingly unrelated pieces of content (say volcanoes and the human body) and then build analogies to connect the two ideas. In the end, students can create a skit, comic, or story relating the two concepts.

Literary Technique: Juxtaposition

Put a grumpy character next to a joyful one and they make each other stand out even more. Opposites are powerful!

Create A Creature

Create a new creature based on the adaptations of existing creatures from the same biome.

Better Stories Part 5: Plot Structure

Ever read a student’s story that was just event after event after event and then a very sudden ending? They lack an understanding of a plot’s structure. With the help of Finding Nemo, I break down how to set up a well-structured plot.

Better Stories Part 2: Types of Conflict

If your students’ stories are packed with endless ninja fights or arguments between frenemies, it’s time to expose them to a wider range of conflicts.

Better Stories Part 3: Literary Themes

A typical student narrative includes plot and characters but lacks a larger idea to hold it all together. This is where a lesson on themes comes in…

Better Stories Part 1: The Big Idea

We open our unit on narrative writing with a big idea: “structure increases creativity.” I show how this is true by bringing in examples from across all disciplines.

Better Stories Part 4: Character Archetypes

Are students’ characters a bit flat? Archetypes give them a strong foundation on which to build their own characters as well as a tool to analyze existing stories.